The Flash – King Shark vs. Gorilla Grodd

The idea behind “King Shark vs. Gorilla Grodd” turns out to be more interesting than the execution, but that’s not to say the latest episode of The Flash doesn’t make the most of the scenes between Grodd and King Shark battling it out in the middle of Central City. The episode starts with Cisco (Carlos Valdes) having created a version of a meta-human cure and the team looking for a willing trial subject to test it on (the fact that Cisco is unwilling to test it on himself, as he still appears to want to rid himself of his vibes, but is willing to use someone else as his guinea pig feels a bit cowardly… but okay). For the team’s subject they choose King Shark who Dr. Tanya Lamden (Zibby Allen) has worked with to regain more of his humanity. However, the device Lamden has been using is stolen by Grodd to enhance his own mental powers and force the entire city under his control.

Along with the CGI battle scenes, there’s a tragic arc for King Shark who regains his humanity only to choose to return to his shark for to save the city from Grodd (whose mind-powers don’t work on the mutated shark brain). Sadly the episode also offers the return of dickish Barry (Grant Gustin) who forces the cure on King Shark without his blessing (albeit to save Cisco’s life). The episode makes a misstep here as Barry could easily have been mind-controlled by Grodd into the choice (allowing the gorilla to retrieve the tech and remove a threat at the same time), but instead decides to have its core characters get pissy at each other for a good part of the episode. The subplot involving Iris (Candice Patton) getting over being murdered in the timeloop makes sense for the character moving forward, but being so wrapped up in herself that she misses a giant gorilla and man-shark battling it out in the city does make you wonder just how good of journalist she really is.